The Carmel Pinecone

July 21, 2017 Edition - Featured Artist

He’s got bold opinions to go with his bold artwork. A five-time president of the Carmel Art Association, Keith Lindberg isn’t shy about letting anyone know what matters to him. PHOTO/DENNIS TAYLOR

He started out ‘raw and crude’ but now brings order to chaos - Carmel's Artists

By DENNIS TAYLOR

WITH NO apologies, Keith Lindberg admits he is strong-headed and stubborn. He lives life his own way, and only paints what he feels like painting.

“I don’t paint for anybody — only for my own satisfaction,” said Lindberg, now 78 years old and a member of the Carmel Art Association for nearly six decades. “And, honestly, I couldn’t care less if I never sell another one.”

By the way, he’s sold quite a few. In the early 1970s, Lindberg got a check from a show in La Jolla where he sold every piece— a chunk of cash so big that he used it to pay off the mortgage of the home where he still lives between Carmel and Big Sur.

He was showing his art in 10 galleries in those days, and he says he could have had 20.

“At the time, I was getting at least one call a week from some gallery owner who wanted to show my work,” he said. “But I’ve always been real comfortable with the word ‘no’ — I’ll tell you ‘no’ at the drop of a hat, before I’ve even thought it over. I know where I stand, and what I need to do.”

Immature

Indeed, bullheaded confidence might be the only reason he became a renowned artist whose work is in collections all over the world. After studying at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago, Lindberg helped a girlfriend move to Carmel. He dumped the girl, but liked the village, and decided to hang around. From 1960-65 he painted voraciously.

“I actually did 1,800 small paintings in about three years, and didn’t sell a single one. They’re all stacked in my studio right now. They just too raw and crude,” he said. “People kept telling me, ‘You better get a job … you don’t have much talent.’ But I didn’t give a damn what anybody thought. I just painted through everything.”

He was living on Mission Street in those days with two roommates, a writer and a sculptor. Each paid $45 a month for rent —money Lindberg earned as a second-string dishwasher at two different restaurants.

“I’d go down to The Artist’s Palette and buy one little tube of paint, and I’d paint on Masonite. That’s all I could afford,” he remembered. “But I always had 55 cents to buy coffee, two eggs and toast every morn-ing at the Village Corner.”

The Village Corner was the Carmel hang-out for artists, musicians, writers, and other bohemian types, and Lindberg blended in. He dated Brenda Morrison, befriended Reed Farrington and S.E. Yuan, socialized with Victor Di Gesu and Janet Ament De La Roche, built professional relationships with gallery owners Donald Teague and Les Lackey, and sparred verbally with John Cunningham.

“He was an arrogant bastard,” he said of Cunningham. “I was accepted into the Carmel Art Association in 1965 on my first try, and when John found out he was really pissed. He said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have gotten in. You’re immature. You’re not ready.’ And I said, ‘Oh, well, thank you, you S.O.B.’”

Turns out, Lindberg was ready. As a CAA artist, his sales immediately took off. Rival gallery owners kept his phone ringing, ask-ing to display his expressive, colorist impressions of figures, still life works, and landscapes. He served as president of the Carmel Art Association five times.

“There have been times in the Carmel Art Association when all of the artists are fighting internally, dividing up like Republicans and Democrats, doing all kinds of nasty stuff,”

he said. “Then there are times when the whole membership is together, supporting each other. As president, I was kind of a party giver. I tried to take every opportunity to bring the membership together with parties, potlucks, fundraisers, or whatever. And the whole membership would usually work together to plan those events.”

Lindberg was divorced twice, and had given up on himself as a long-term husband until he was introduced to Kathleen DeBoard, a potter he married 29 years ago. Their relationship works, he said, because she respects his space and his need for independence.

“Life is chaos, and my objective is to bring some order to that chaos,” he said with a laugh. “For me, that’s what painting is. The truth is, you paint yourself … your core personality."

Lindberg said. “The goal is to put down on can-vas what you are inside. I don’t want to paint like any-body else.”

Dennis Taylor is a free-lance writer in Monterey County.

Contact him at scribelaureate@gmail.com.